Reviews of 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising

The following are excerpts from reviews at Amazon. You can read the full reviews here.

Brilliant stuff, funny as hell.,
Stephen McGill
Stumbled across the Ad Contrarian blog a while ago and… it is by far my favourite blog. I grabbed this wonderful book as soon as I could as I wanted to have the best of Bob close at hand…. As a long time ad guy who cut his teeth on the work of Ogilvy, Bernbach et al, I just love the way Bob thinks and writes about our crazy business and even more crazy world. This is take no prisoners kind of stuff that is just superbly written always. Buy it, read it. If you are like me it will make you laugh, make you cry and shake your head in wonder.
~5.0 out of 5 stars

Smart.
George Tannenbaum
Bob is one of the smartest guys in the business. His thoughts are not obscured by fads, what's au courant or quotidian bs. He is a straight-shooter. Honest, to the point and fact-based. Qualities sorely missing in the world today.
~5.0 out of 5 stars 

You like "Mad Men"? You'll love this book.
Joe
This book is an insightful, hilarious look at what's wrong with advertising agencies, with marketing in general, and maybe even the world overall. But it isn't just for people who work in ad agencies. It's for anybody who ever saw an ad that sucked and wondered how it got that way. It's for anybody who works in any kind of job involving generation of new ideas. And yes, it's for anybody who enjoys "Mad Men." Bob Hoffman is smarter than Don Draper. He's funnier than Don Draper. And he's better looking than... Okay, like I said, Bob Hoffman is definitely smarter and funnier than Don Draper.
~5.0 out of 5 stars 

I highly recommend this book
Michael Gass
Bob Hoffman's take on the advertising industry is refreshing, insightful, amusing and discerning. He keeps us grounded when our industry is in a state of flux and upheaval. He is blantantly honest and he wont be appealing to everyone. But to those who are drawn to him, find him to be a 'straight-shooter', a person who will cut through all the agency B.S. and tell you what he really thinks.
~5.0 out of 5 stars

We need more contrarians.
Jason Fox
Bob Hoffman may call himself the Ad Contrarian, but in reality he's a font of common sense.
~5.0 out of 5 stars

Funny book and even better you'll also learn something.
Len Tillem
I loved this book. I am not, thank God, in advertising but this book taught me a lot about how to avoid the BS that comes from working with other people. If you work with more than two people you should read this book.
…it's an easy, clever read and it will help you feel OK about tuning out and spacing out at office meetings. We all need that kind of help.
~5.0 out of 5 stars

This is a great book. It is better than Cats.
David A. Brown

I am going to read it again and again.

…I like Bob's perspective from the trenches of advertising. His writing is witty and has a no-nonsense attitude… This is a great book about advertising for people who don't like advertising.
~5.0 out of 5 stars

1,000,001 pieces of refreshing logic
Mark Trueblood
Bob Hoffman is an ad agency owner and a popular advertising blogger at "The Ad Contrarian." He is known for his hilarious skewering of the BS that inundates the advertising industry. Over the years, he has become my favorite advertising blogger because of his ability to think critically. Critical thinking and logic are two faculties in short supply in our industry, and Bob is always a refreshing read.

…Bob Hoffman's perspective is terrific because he continually digs into various heaping piles of advertising hype to discover nuggets of truth. And if he doesn't find any, he's not afraid to say how bad it stinks.
~4.0 out of 5 stars

What the boss needs to know
By Rodgersrocks

Every boss I have ever had would be better off for reading this.
~5.0 out of 5 stars


Hoffman: The Iconoclastic Craftsman,

Michael Concannon
…Bob is like a master craftsman you find in a small town that builds and sells elegant and structural sound three legged stools that will last 100 years... A handbook for smart marketers. Did I mention he is funny as hell?
~5.0 out of 5 stars

The world's second best book on advertising.
George Parker
It gives me great pleasure to review Bob Hoffman's new book… The book is a classic, a compendium of some of Bob's better posts on his blog. They are all gems…
~5.0 out of 5 stars

A must read for advertising professionals
Edward Flynn
I've been a fan of Bob's blog for a long time. His wit and insight into the business of advertising is spot on. If you, like me, have worked in the industry long enough to see the shenanigans done by agencies and clients, you will laugh at plenty of the contents of his book. Advertising is a business that is always ripe for satire and criticism which is what Bob does in spades.
~5.0 out of 5 stars

Quite possibly the best $2.99 book out there!
Sharon Krinsky
A funny, enlightening, clear-eyed look at advertising and marketing. Pleasantly didactic and cheerfully challenging of the fables and fantasies that pass for advertising principles.
~5.0 out of 5 stars

The Year In Contrariana

Every year about this time the editorial board of The Ad Contrarian gets together for its annual year-end analysis. This consists of large plates of pasta, several pitchers of martinis, and an afternoon of irresponsible betting on bowl games.

Sometimes we even talk about the blog.

2011 was an interesting year here at Ad Contrarian world headquarters. Here are the highlights, as chosen by the editorial board.

• One of the websites that measures these things had us listed as one of the world's top 50 advertising and marketing blogs (there are apparently 100 million of 'em and 99% are devoted to search engine optimization, datametrics, or some other bloodless chatter.) 
• We passed our one millionth reader. 
• According to the finance committee, I still haven't made my first nickel from this goddam thing. 

My Top 10 New Years Resolutions appeared on January 3rd. The first of which was... "I will not slow-dance with Eliot Spitzer." I'm proud to say that I have stuck scrupulously to this resolution. One of my personal favorite posts of the year entitled The Legend Of Marketing Man appeared on Jan. 17th.

In February the ad blogosphere, as always, was dominated by the Super Bowl. We had 4 different posts about Super Bowl advertising. The bottom line was this: "...The game kept getting better and the spots kept getting worse." In a post called Slow Company, we had fun ridiculing the most laughable idea of the month which appeared in Fast Company and claimed that iAds (remember those?) could double the impact of Super Bowl advertising. "...Apple's iAds appear to be twice as effective as a TV spot." Yeah, right. 

March was Pepsi-bashing month here at TAC. Our most oft-quoted post of the year, called Social Media's Massive Failure, appeared on March 21. It was about Pepsi's disastrous "Refresh Project." It received over 100 reader comments, drove social media maniacs up the wall, and became something of a viral hit with dozens of marketing blogs referencing it.

We started April with a wonderful line from a social media expert, "We're less likely to be successful if we try to create something where people already aren't." It appeared on April Fools Day but, unfortunately, wasn't a joke. On the 26th we had a piece on how our chattering marketing geniuses were Rewriting History.

In May, we focused on one of our favorite topics: brand babble. First we posted Brand Babble Battles Back then later in the month Now Branding Saves the World. 

The best post from June was called How Apple Does It and was about the strategies behind Apple's marketing success and how "... It would be hard to draw-up a set of behaviors that more thoroughly repudiate contemporary marketing dogma."

In July we celebrated our 4th anniversary of writing this thing. I can remember the day it started. I was in Arizona, it was about 250 degrees outside, and I was sitting in my hotel room with nothing to do. I decided to start a blog.

In August, we published the most widely-read piece that has ever appeared on this blog. It was called Advertising And The Future Of Apple. The premise was that, with Steve Jobs having stepped down, advertising might be a bellwether for how Apple would face the future without his creative genius. The piece was picked up by The Wall Street Journal, CNN and others.

The dismal record of display advertising was the subject of a piece in September entitled Clicking Toward Oblivion. Referencing the tremendous growth of display advertising despite the shockingly low click-through rates, the piece concluded that"...if we can just get the click-through rate down to zero, we'll all be rich!" 

October featured a post called Bulletin: Ad Campaigns Are Now Dead, Too. It was a commentary on a piece in Ad Age by some social media dimwit who claimed there was no longer any need for campaign ideas. The post concluded that... "Social media madness has reached the point where the best idea is no idea."

One of the most popular posts of the year ran at the end of November and was called My Overnight Social Media Success. It was about the launch of my second book 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising. The storyline: "I have built a social media brand. I know what it takes. I know how useless most social media bullshit is and how hard the people work who do it right."

We ended the year in December with a guest post from God called The Ten Amendments. It was a satirical piece about religion. I was reluctant to post it because I was afraid it would draw a lot of nasty comments. Happily, it didn't. 

Our editorial board wishes you a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year. See you next year. 

By The Way...
Let's face it. You're not going to do any work this week. You might as well read a good book. And if you can't find a good one, you might as well read this.

The Ten Amendments

Since Christmas and Hannukah are this week, I am publishing this guest post I received recently from a Very Important Being.

I am starting to get annoyed with you people. The universe is a large territory to cover and I’ve got a lot on my plate. I take my eye off you for a couple of thousand years and what do I find when I get back? You’re putting rings through your eyebrows and pineapple on your pizza.  What the hell is wrong with you?

I have been reading the books that I’m supposed to have dictated. Are you kidding me? I asked some guy to knife his baby? I let my son get hung up with nails? What would I do that for? (Okay, maybe if he was Donald Trump or something.)

Let’s get this straight. I didn’t write any of those books that I’m supposed to have written, okay? That stuff you're always killing each other over was written by people who thought I talked to them— in other words, crazy people.

I don’t have any favorite people or favorite countries or favorite religions or favorite anything. To be honest, you're all mostly just a pain in my ass and I don’t really care that much for any of you. Although sometimes I root for the Steelers.

Can I explain something else? I didn’t invent you. You’re here because all those little amoeba and bacteria I made needed a way to move around faster. Some of them evolved into you. Now you carry billions of them around with you everywhere you go. Mostly, you’re just rapid transit for bugs. So get over yourselves.

The more I watch you, the more I believe you’re completely crazy and unreliable. Consequently, I have written this essay in the hope that you’ll stop acting like morons.

I know you have your “Ten Commandments” so I’m going to call this The Ten Amendments. You can consider these amendments to the commandments. I think it’s kinda cute. Agree?

Okay, so here are The Ten Amendments. Pay attention please:

Amendment #1: Be Nice.
Now how difficult is that? Quit yelling at each other and shooting each other and writing nasty anonymous comments on blogs. Would it kill you to smile a little?

Amendment #2: Stop Whining.
You call it praying. I call it whining. Isn’t it obvious by now that I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff?

Amendment #3: Keep Your Stupid Opinions To Yourself.
With all due respect, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, so button it. Shooting your mouth off just annoys everyone.

Amendment #4: Eat Your Salad Before The Meal
What’s with this salad-after-the-main-course thing? What are you, French or something?

Amendment #5: Do more screwing
It’s a nice, inexpensive way to have a good time. And you’ll sleep better. Just one thing – close the windows so you don’t alarm the neighbors’ children.

Amendment #6: Don’t Change Lanes So Much
You drive like idiots. Stay in your damn lane.

Amendment #7: Quit Watching So Much Crap
"Kim's Fairytale Wedding?" Are you crazy?

Amendment #8: Take Those Bluetooth Things Out Of Your Ears
Do you really want to look like the biggest jerk at the airport?

Amendment #9: I Don’t Think It’s So Terrible To Put Parmesan Cheese On Seafood Pasta.
I know some people make a big fuss over this, but I wouldn’t worry about it.

Amendment #10: Clean Out Your Closet
You’ll feel better. Trust me.

So that’s all you have to do. I’ve got bigger things to worry about than what you eat, and what songs you sing, and whether you kneel down or light candles or wear a hat. I’ll leave that up to you. Also, don’t  pay any attention to those people who say they represent me -- I don’t need agents.

One last thing. Try to be helpful, okay?

Your friend,
God